みつばち研究助成

Given that healthy life expectancy is a term when one can spend a regular daily living without health problems, there is approximately ten years of discrepancy between average life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in Japan. Increased chances of cerebrovascular diseases, dementia, senility, and locomotive syndrome in this 10-year period will hinder us from maintaining the quality of life (QOL), resulting in a need for care by family. On the other hand, increased burden of family caregivers is becoming a public issue that requires more focused attention.
Yamada Bee Company, founded with a philosophy “Healthy Life for Everyone”, has been conducting research on natural products and human health in view of preventative medicine. Yamada Research Grant Program celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018, which was established to facilitate the development of preventative medicine by supporting a variety of scientists who have creative and beneficial research themes which eventually lead to the elucidation of scientific mechanisms of natural products and further advancement of preventative medicine. Our funded research has revealed the multifunctionality of honey bee products such as the inhibitory effect of royal jelly on age-related muscle wasting and preventative effect of propolis on the development of dementia.

We proudly continue to call for proposals for fiscal year 2018 to support creative research for preventive medicine using honeybee products for extending healthy life span by maintaining the elderly’s physical and mental health, vitality, and independent life style. We, as a beekeeping company, also call for research proposals that leads to the protection of global environment we live in and to the solution to problems that we currently face.

1.Types of Research Grant Subprograms

1) General Research Grant for New Studies

Objective. The specific objective of this subprogram is to fund new and unreported research proposals relevant to honey bee products such as royal jelly, propolis, bee larvae, and honey & flower pollens. When a supplement is used, the applicant also use a honeybee product in your study to report synergistic effect(s) of both the supplement and honeybee product. For detailed explanation for the samples in this research grant, please see Section 5 - Provision of Research Materials as stated below.

Topics.

i）Preventive Medicine Research

ii）Special Research

iii）Environmental/Beekeeping Research

---

２）Research Grant for Continuing Studies

Objective. The specific objective of this subprogram is to support the projects that were previously funded by our grant program to enhance the research ideas for contributing to our community.

Eligibility. Researchers who were funded by Yamada Research Grant and provided a research presentation at the closing conference.

Grant to be awarded. (1) $18,000/€15,400 each for in vitro and/or in vivo studies and (2) between $45,000/€38,500 and $90,000/€77,000 each for clinical trial (Applicants need to request the budget within this monetary range).

Project duration. 2-3 years. No applicants may seek more than three years of support under this subprogram.

---

Note. The grant shall be remitted in installments under this subprogram. An annual progress report will be mandatory to make go/no-go decision on each project.

2.Official Language

English or Japanese

3.Selection Criteria

1. Those who do not meet eligibility will not be included in the pool of applicants in any case.
2. While the safety of each material of a food can be confirmed by extensive food experience, the scientific grounds for its effect(s) often stems from mythology and are missing. Thus, clinical trials using human subjects are essential to truly evaluate the functionality of the food on human health. In this regard, higher priority will be given to research projects proposing clinical trials in preventive medicine and validation studies that lead to clinical trials. However, please be noticed that a proposal that possesses high originality will be an exception.
3. We will prioritize research proposals with solid methodology and pilot data.
4. Past Yamada Research Grant recipients who did not comply with the terms written in the written pledge are not eligible to reapply.
5. As this research grant is designed to foster scientists in the early career stage, preference will be given to applicants whose age are 45 or younger.

4.How to Apply

5.Provision of Research Materials

Proposals should include type and quantity of samples required in your research. Grant recipients can obtain our honeybee products (royal jelly, propolis, honey, bee larvae, and bee pollen) and/or supplements listed on our website as indicated below at no cost. (Materials not included in the list must be obtained independently by the applicant). Consultation on samples will be provided to each recipient after an official award letter is sent.

List of available samples

6.Application Period

May 28th, 2018 (Mon) – June 22nd, 2018 (Fri), 5:00 PM in Japan Standard Time.

Note: Should the screening process generate questions or issues requiring verification, applicants will be notified via Bee-RAC by June 27th (Wed) and must respond to them by June 29th (Fri).

7.Application Screening and Decision

All decisions will be made based on your applications. The first review will be conducted by judges selected by Yamada Research Grant from each field. The first review process will be omitted for the applications in the subprogram “[2] Research Grant for Continuing Studies”. The applications chosen in the first review will undergo further review by the Yamada Research Grant review committee members including external experts from academic research institutions and industry to make final decisions including the amount of grant to be awarded. A final decision will be provided to all applicants via Bee-RAC after approximately three months past the application deadline. Please be advised that all decisions are strictly impartial and we are unable to respond to any inquiries concerning final selections.
Approved research topics will be announced on the Yamada Research Grant website.

8.Research Grant Remittance and Usage

Grant notification letters will be presented during the Awards Ceremony (tentatively scheduled to be held at the Yamada Bee Company’s corporate headquarters) in either October or November of the approved year. All grant recipients are required to attend the ceremony. Attendance of a proxy will be granted only in case the recipient has a special reason.
Grants will be remitted by the end of December 2018 to the bank accounts of successful applicants. However, an expense related to clinical trial(s) will be issued once the protocol is approved by Institutional Review Board (IRB) of your institution. Thus, a copy of approval letter by IRB and approved protocol needs to be submitted to our grant office for this process. It should be also noted that usage of research grants is fundamentally limited to activities stated in the research plan.

Note. Apart from research funding, we will pay the costs for your presentation in a conference and/or publication. Submission of presentation material(s) and a final report is mandatory and the reimbursement will be made after all steps are completed.

9.Handling of Personal Information

(1) Scope of Usage of Personal Information

Usage of personal information obtained from research grant applications will only be used as necessary throughout the grant selection and provision processes, including application, screening, decision notification, and related matters. In addition, there are certain cases where personal information may be shared with partner companies in the course of the above process. Any questions regarding our usage of personal information should be directed to the contact listed below.

(2) Extent of Disclosure of Personal Information

After grants have been determined, we will publish information on the recipients (including mention of their affiliated organizations) and a description of approved topics.

(3) Personal Information Disclosure, Amendments, and Suspension of Usage

We will quickly respond to requests to disclose, amend or suspend usage of personal information after verifying the identity of the applicant.

10.Research Report

(1) Written Report

A set of final documents, including final research report, abstract for closing conference, and payment details as of September 30th, must be submitted to our grant office by October 20th of the final grant year.

(2) Yamada Research Grant Closing Conference

Each grant recipient must attend and present research results at the closing conference scheduled sometime between December of the final grant year and March in the following year. A proxy should attend and present data there in case your absence being inevitable.

11.Miscellanea

(1) Submission of Grant Application and Written Pledge

Grant recipients need to submit a grant application and written pledge to receive grant. The contents of these documents can be found in the “Agreement” tab of the guidelines.

(2) Grant Suspension and Repayment

We reserve the right to suspend the grant and claim partial or full repayment if the recipient fails to submit a written report by the deadline, if research content differs significantly from that noted on application documents, if results predating the research grant are reported as accomplishments of this research grant, if the recipient fails to adhere to the written pledge, or if any research activities unrelated to the purpose of grant program is detected.

(3) Presentation of Research Results

We request all successful applications to notify the Yamada Research Grant in advance of sharing grant research results at conferences, in research papers, in other publications, or in mass media. Things we need to know are data you are presenting, date, and delivery method of presentation. In principle, notification should be sent to us 30 days prior to the submission of an abstract in a conference or in advance of publication of any research papers. In case of urgent matter that can’t follow this guideline, yet contact the Yamada Research Grant Office as soon as possible. All grant recipient must include an acknowledgment of our grant support in all grant products, presentation, and publications with the following statement.

“This research was supported (in part) by the Yamada Research Grant”

In addition, the test sample specifications should be indicated under the Materials and Methods section of your manuscript(s). Please contact us if you have any questions.